Econometric Analysis

by

William H. Greene

Introduces students to applied econometrics- including basic techniques in regression analysis and some of the rich variety of models that are used.

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Agile Web Development with Rails
A Pragmatic Guide

by

Dave Thomas
David Heinemeier Hansson

Rails is a full-stack, open-source web framework that enables you to create full-featured, sophisticated web-based applications, but with a twist... A full Rails application probably has less total code than the XML you'd need to configure the same application in other frameworks. With this book you'll learn how to use ActiveRecord to connect business objects and database tables. No more painful object-relational mapping. Just create your business objects and let Rails do the rest. You'll learn how to use the Action Pack framework to route incoming requests and render pages using easy-to-write templates and components. See how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send emails, implement web services, and create dynamic, user-centric web-pages using built-in Javascript and Ajax support. There are extensive chapters on testing, deployment, and scaling. You'll see how easy it is to install Rails using your web server of choice (such as Apache or lighttpd) or using its own included web server. You'll be writing applications that work with your favorite database (MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, and more) in no time at all. You'll create a complete online store application in the extended tutorial section, so you'll see how a full Rails application is developed---iteratively and rapidly. Rails strives to honor the Pragmatic Programmer's "DRY Principle" by avoiding the extra work of configuration files and code annotations. You can develop in real-time: make a change, and watch it work immediately. Forget XML. Everything in Rails, from templates to control flow to business logic, is written in Ruby, the language of choice for programmers who like to get the job done well (and leave work on time for a change). Rails is the framework of choice for the new generation of Web 2.0 developers. Agile Web Development with Rails is the book for that generation, written by Dave Thomas (Pragmatic Programmer and author of Programming Ruby) and David Heinemeier Hansson, who created Rails.

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Marketing Management: Millennium Edition

by

Phillip Kotler

This world-wide best-selling book highlights the most recent trends and developments in global marketing—with an emphasis on the importance of teamwork between marketing and all the other functions of the business. It introduces new perspectives in successful strategic market planning, and presents additional company examples of creative, market-focused, and customer-driven action. Coverage includes a focus on marketing in the 21st Century that introduces the new ideas, tools and practices companies will need to successfully operate in the New Millenium. Chapter topics discuss building customer satisfaction, market-oriented strategic planning, analyzing consumer markets and buyer behavior, dealing with the competition, designing pricing strategies and programs, and managing the sales force. For marketing managers who want to increase their understanding of the major issues of strategic, tactical, and administrative marketing—along with the opportunities and needs of the marketplace in the years ahead.

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THE AMA HANDBOOK OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

edited by

PAUL C. DINSMORE, PMP
JEANNETTE CABANIS-BREWIN

This handbook provides a set of principles and processes for those managers and professionals who want to enhance their understanding of the theory and practice of project management. Like all good handbooks, this is a comprehensive reference source for practical how-to-do-it information. This handbook also can be used in project management training programs, as well as in degree programs in universities. There is a flood of books currently being published about project management. Unfortunately all too many of these books take existing works and recast them in a slightly different light, resulting in minor contributions to the growing literature. The AMA Handbook of Project Management is a refreshing change. This book starts with the Project Management Institute’s body of knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and then goes beyond that through a description of the Project Management profession and its challenges and coverage of organizational issues likely to be encountered in the world of project management, ending with a presentation of industry applications of the project approach. The material in the book comes from authors who are notable contributors in the project management community, ranging from academics to practitioners who grapple with the challenges of managing or teaching in the project management field. This is a book that should have a conspicuous place on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to improve their professional practice in the use of project management knowledge and skills.

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The Blackwell Handbook of Global Management:

A Guide To Managing Complexity

by

Henry W. Lane, et al.,

Editors

Ten years ago, leading researchers called loudly and clearly for well-coordinated multiresearcher multinational projects. The calls cited two important benefits of such studies. They would allow us to explore the answers to international management questions, which require conducting research in multiple contexts at more or less the same time. They would also counter the cultural biases we all bring to our thinking and turn those biases into synergies. Since the 1990s several well-coordinated multi-researcher projects have been or are being conducted, and we are seeing the fruits of their labors. Some early examples include the GLOBE study on leadership and the event management study on decision-making. Another group of researchers have been experimenting for the last few years with an alternative model of coordinated research – a loosely-coupled research network. ION (International Organizations Network) was formed with a mission to increase the quality and impact of research on people and their effectiveness in international organizations. The network’s vision is to be a catalyst for the creation and application of knowledge and understanding that powerfully impacts how international organizations are managed. ION strives to initiate and facilitate high-quality research addressing management-related challenges of importance to global enterprises, such as motivation, leadership, teams, organizational structure, and human resource systems. ION also works to facilitate the translation of research findings into practical implications for organizations and educational material for innovative and effective teaching. In essence, we are scholars who care deeply about managers and executives who find themselves working in the global business environment.

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PLAY TO WIN
The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy

by

David La Piana
with Michaela Hayes

This book is intended to strengthen nonprofit organizational effectiveness by helping leaders to make more effective use of competitive strategy. It makes the case that being a more effective competitor will enhance your nonprofit’s chances for both programmatic and financial success, and it provides practical tools for assessing your nonprofit’s position in the market and then developing competitive strategies that will improve your market position. Competition can be defined as the process of different entities vying for an optimal share of a limited resource. This book emphasizes competition as an approach to securing the resources necessary for your nonprofit to advance its mission. Competitive strategy is the path to finding and securing the resources and opportunities most appropriate to your organization, based on its mission and expertise and in light of its comparative advantages in the market. Competitive strategy can be defined as a pattern of thoughtful action through which an organization’s leaders seek an increased share of limited resources, with the goal of advancing their mission. If you are an experienced nonprofit competitor, this book will provide a framework for thinking about what you already do intuitively and for developing a fuller understanding of competitiveness. If you are coming to the concept of nonprofit competition for the first time, it will serve as a primer on the subject.

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Getting Started in Project management

by

Paula Martin and Karen Tate

Whether working on an international project for a Fortune 500 company or organizing a family reunion, you need effective project management to ensure timely and efficient completion of projects. This helpful guide offers explanations of everything needed to get started in project management including: how to initiate a project and lead the project team, how to structure the project and plan for resources, how to monitor and track the plan, and how to close out the project. Packed with practical advice, this book includes tips to increase success, reveals common pitfalls to avoid, and presents case studies to show and why project management actually works.

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Accounting Demystified

by
Jeffry R. Haber, Ph.D., CPA

The success or failure of a business is measured in dollars. And dollars are recorded and reported using accounting. Accounting is truly the language of business. No matter what your role may be, if you are involved in business, you can benefit from learning accounting. That’s what this book is all about—taking the subject and making it understandable and accessible. This book makes an excellent companion to any standard text, or it can be used as a stand-alone volume. It is designed to present the subject in a straightforward, approachable manner. Financial accounting is an incremental process. What you learn in earlier chapters is used in later ones. There are no shortcuts to learning financial accounting, but at the same time, if it is taught clearly, it is not difficult.

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THE MANAGEMENT BIBLE

by

BOB NELSON
PETER ECONOMY

People talk a lot about how the world of business has changed; how markets today are not just regional or national, but global; how fastevolving telecommunications technology has dramatically cranked up the speed of doing business; and how employees are seeking more meaningful work along with a voice in the decisions that affect them. It’s true, the world of business has changed. More than ever before, this means that managers must also change to meet these new challenges.

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Credit Repair

by

Attorneys Robin Leonard and Deanne Loonin
edited by Attorney Kathleen Michon

To turn your financial problems around, you must understand your flow of income and expenses. Some people call this making a budget. Others find the term budget too restrictive and use the term “spending plan.” Whatever you call it, spend at least two months writing down every cash or cash equivalent, such as check or debit, expenditure. At each month’s end, compare your total expenses with your income. If you’re overspending, you have to cut back or find more income. As best you can, plan how you’ll spend your money each month. If you have trouble putting together your own budget, consider getting help from a nonprofit credit or debt counseling agency that provides budgeting help for free or at a low cost

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Credit Portfolio Management

by

CHARLES SMITHSON

The good news about writing a book on credit portfolio management is that it is topical—credit risk is the area that has attracted the most attention recently. The bad news is that the book will get out of date quickly. In the credit market, tools, techniques, and practices are changing rapidly and will continue to change for several years to come. We will try our best to keep the book current by providing updates on the website. Go to www.rutterassociates.com and click on the Credit Portfolio Management book icon.

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Accounting Reference Desktop

by

Steven M. Bragg

The Accounting Reference Desktop is designed to give the accountant the answers to all of the most important issues that arise during the typical business day. It provides a comprehensive
overview of all aspects of the accounting function, including accounting rules and regulations, transactions, control points, and internal and external reports. It also itemizes a wide range of accounting management issues, such as best practices, budgeting, closing the books, control systems, cost accounting, financial analysis, management information systems, accounting for mergers and acquisitions, tax laws, and record keeping. In addition, it covers a number of financial management issues, such as the extension and management of customer credit, financing, cash management, and risk management. The appendices are also rich in detail, describing a sample chart of accounts, itemizing the most common journal entries, displaying interest rate tables, listing the most commonly used business ratios, and finishing with a dictionary of accounting terms. The Accounting Reference Desktop is a true one-stop source of information for the accountant.

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Accounting Best Practices
Third Edition

by

Steven M. Bragg

This book is compiled from the author’s lengthy experience in setting up and operating a number of accounting departments, as well as by providing consulting services to other companies. Accordingly, it contains a blend of best practices from a wide variety of accounting environments, ranging from very small partnerships to multibillion-dollar corporations. This means that not all of the best practices described within these pages will be useful in every situation—some are designed to provide quick and inexpensive, incremental improvements to an operation that can be installed in a day, while others are groundbreaking events that require six-figure investments (or more) and months of installation time. Some will only work for companies of a certain size, and should be discarded as more expensive and comprehensive accounting systems are installed—it all depends on the situation. Consequently, each chapter includes a table that notes the ease, duration, and cost of implementation for every best practice within it.

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Automatic Wealth

The Six Steps to Financial Independence

by

MICHAEL MASTERSON

Who doesn’t want to be rich . . . or at least more financially secure than they are now? As Gertrude Stein once famously said, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. It’s better to be rich.” And so have I. From dead broke to worse. And then from okay to affluent to more-than-enough.
I’ve done many jobs inmy working life. My first job, drying rear windows in a car wash, paid me $1.75 an hour. Nowadays I can’t be tempted to work for less than 500 times that amount. In this book you’ll learn what I learned along the way: that it’s not hard to become as wealthy as you want to be . . . as long as you are willing to follow six simple steps. I’ve been a busboy, bartender, housepainter, carpenter, bouncer, aluminum siding salesman, soda fountain jockey, teacher, copywriter, and tinsmith.

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The Fast Forward MBA in Finance

by

John A. Tracy

This book is for business managers, as well as for bankers, consultants, lawyers, and other professionals who need a solid and practical understanding of how business makes profit, cash flow from profit, the assets and capital needed to support profit-making operations, and the cost of capital. Business managers and professionals don’t have time to wade through a 600-page tome; they need a practical guide that gets to the point directly with clear and convincing examples. In broad terms this book explains the tools of the trade for analyzing business financial information. Financial statements are one primary source of such information. Therefore financial statements are the best framework to explain and demonstrate how managers analyze financial information for making decisions and keeping control. Surprisingly, most books of this ilk do not use the financial statements framework. My book offers many advantages in this respect. This book explains and clearly demonstrates the indispensable analysis techniques that street-smart business managers use to:
• Make profit.
• Control the capital invested in assets used in making profit and in deciding on the sources of

capital for asset investments.
• Generate cash flow from profit.

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Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk

by

Patricia Grossi (Editor),

Howard Kunreuther (Editor)

Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk is the first book that systematically analyzes how catastrophe models can be used for assessing and managing risks of extreme events. It focuses on natural disaster risk, but also discusses the management of terrorism risk. A unique feature of this book is the involvement of three leading catastrophe modeling firms, AIR Worldwide, EQECAT, and Risk Management Solutions, who examine the role of catastrophe modeling in rate setting, portfolio management and risk financing. Using data from three model cities (Oakland, CA, Long Beach, CA and Miami/Dade County, FLA), experts from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania examine the role of catastrophe modeling to develop risk management strategies for reducing and spreading the losses from future disasters. Given the uncertainties associated with terrorism the book points out the opportunities for utilizing catastrophe models to set insurance rates and to examine public-private partnerships for providing financial assistance in the event of a terrorist attack. "This book fills a critical need in setting forth the role of modern risk analysis in managing catastrophe risk. There is no comparable reference work for this important subject area. The book is well written and well organized. It contains contributions from many of the most distinguished experts in the fields of risk analysis and risk management. It strikes a good balance between the technical aspects of the subject and the practical aspects of decision making." "This book is strongly recommended for individuals who must make decisions regarding the management of impacts of catastrophe risks including those in both the public and private sector." Wilfred D. IwanProfessor of Applied Mechanics, EmeritusDirector, Earthquake Engineering Research LaboratoryCalifornia Institute of Technology "The authors have captured the essence of catastrophe modeling: its value, its utility and its limitations. Every practitioner in the catastrophe risk field should read this book." Franklin W. Nutter, PresidentReinsurance Association of America

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Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques

by

Ben Willmore

A book is only as good as it's author and Mr. Willmore is an incredibly gifted writer in that he is able to explain WHY different techniques are used in Photoshop rather than simply listing a clinical step-by-step HOW-TO, as most of the Photoshop cookbooks out there do. This ultimately leads the reader to a much better understanding of the program and the tools that it offers the digital artist. The so-called telephone-book-thick "bibles" that are offered up for every software suite under the sun are nothing more than 'do this, do that, arrive at this' lists of instructions; they do very little in the way actually explaining WHY you would want to use a certain filter here, or adjustment layer there. Ben Willmore however does a fine job of explaining, in everyday English, what it is that makes Photoshop's offerings so useful and also so powerful. He also provides a CD with tutorials and sample images to go along with some of the lessons, which makes it much easier to actually grasp some of the concepts. If you only buy one photoshop book, this is the one to get. It is great for beginners, intermediate users, and also advanced users as he really does get into the meat of Photoshop without wasting valuable chapters on crap like "how to install Photoshop on a PC or a Mac" or "sytem requirements" etc. - something which 90% of the "bibles" out there waste the first third of their book on (which is entirely useless as installation instructions etc can be easily found in Photoshop's own help files, on the web, etc etc etc). I have read quite a few Photoshop books and this one by far is the first book that actually leaves you with a feeling that you understand the program.Was this review helpful to you? (Jason Hoffner "Society Indecline" - San Diego, CA)

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password: aqw

Basic Mathematics for Economists

by

Mike Rosser

The approach and style of the first edition have proved popular with students and I have tried to maintain both in the new material introduced in this second edition. The emphasis is on the introduction of mathematical concepts in the context of economics applications, with each step of the workings clearly explained in all the worked examples. Although the first edition was originally aimed at less mathematically able students, many others have also found it useful, some as a foundation for further study in mathematical economics and others as a helpful reference for specific topics that they have had difficulty understanding.

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CAPITAL INSTINCTS
Life As an Entrepreneur,Financier, and Athlete

by

Richard L. Brandt

The spirit of the Wild West of more than a century ago still lives on in Silicon Valley. It’s a place of pioneers, daredevils, and risk takers. Instead of pioneers moving into a lawless land, acquiring property, and building homes, farms, and ranches in a harsh and untamed environment, today’s western pioneers acquire high-risk capital and build companies within a harsh and untamed business environment. It’s a risky ambition. Pioneering a new industry requires intelligence, reativity, guts, stamina, a strong sense of adventure, and luck. The regulations governing today’s entrepreneurial businesses are still being written. For example, the phenomenon of a flood of young companies hitting the public markets in a massive wave, creating instant millionaires, is a new one. As we have seen in the last few years, it also has its perils.

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ESSENTIAL STOCK PICKING STRATEGIES
What Works on Wall Street

by

Daniel A. Strachman

Over the past six or seven years everything was the stock market and the stock market was everything. Cabdrivers, teachers, waiters, and window washers—everybody was talking about this stock or that stock and how every single one was going up. No longer did you need to know anything about fundamental or technical analysis or anything about a company’s balance sheet or income statement to make money in the market. All you had to do was place an order, hold it for a day or two, and bam! You were a Wall Street whiz!

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The Global Money Markets

by

FRANK J. FABOZZI
STEVEN V. MANN
MOORAD CHOUDHRY

The money market is traditionally defined as the market for financial assets that have original maturities of one year or less. In essence, it is the market for short-term debt instruments. Financial assets traded in this market include such instruments as U.S. Treasury bills, commercial paper, some medium-term notes, bankers acceptances, federal agency discount paper, most certificates of deposit, repurchase agreements, floating-rate agreements, and federal funds. The scope of the money market has expanded in recent years to include securitized products such mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities with short average lives. These securities, along with the derivative contracts associated with them, are the subject of this book.

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Cash Rules

learn & manage the 7 cash-flow
drivers for your company’s success

by

bill mcguinness

CASH FLOW IS THE RODNEY DANGERFIELD OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT. It never gets the respect it deserves—that is, until a business runs into trouble paying its bills. Cash is like the air that we breath: It’s taken for granted, but desperately missed when cut off. And like that other precious commodity, water, we tend to overuse it when it’s plentiful, regretting our profligacy only when the flow slows to a trickle. The study of cash-flow management doesn’t get its due these days for one simple reason: The U.S. economy has been awfully good for an awfully long time. In most major business sectors, sales have been growing strongly. Credit—both shortterm operating lines and long-term debt—is readily available. And best of all, investors have been only too eager to throw venture equity at every half-baked idea that comes down the pike. When business is booming like this, it’s no wonder that a lot of managers and stockholders have become rather blasé about cash flow. Boom times breed sloppy habits, such as overstaffing
and overspending on everything from marketing to administrative overhead. And, consistent with the old adage that you never spend someone else’s money as carefully as you spend your own, this overspending is especially flagrant at start-up firms that are running entirely on outside capital.

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Budgeting for Managers

by

Sid Kemp
Eric Dunbar

The idea behind the books in the Briefcase Series is to give you practical information written in a friendly, person-to-person style. The chapters are short, deal with tactical issues, and include lots of examples. They also feature numerous boxes designed to give you different types of specific information. Here’s a description of the boxes you’ll find in this book.

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Introduction to Methods of Applied Mathematics
or
Advanced Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers

by

Sean Mauch

The title is only making light of naming conventions in the sciences and is not an insult to engineers. If you want to find a good math text to learn a subject, look for books with \Introduction" and \Elementary" in the title. If it is an \Intermediate" text it will be incomprehensible. If it is \Advanced" then not only will it be incomprehensible, it will have low production qualities, i.e. a crappy typewriter font, no graphics and no examples. There is an exception to this rule when the title also contains the word \Scientists" or \Engineers". Then an advanced book may be quite suitable for actually learning the material.

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Poverty Targeting in Asia

Edited by
John Weiss

As a subsidiary of the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) is committed to a program of research and capacity building that supports the Bank’s overarching goal of poverty reduction in Asia. As an important part of this work, in 2003 a series of studies were undertaken on the effectiveness of various measures aimed at channeling
resources directly at the poor and vulnerable – so-called ‘poverty targeting’. Five important countries were selected for study – India, Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China, the Philippines and Thailand. The results of this work were discussed at an internal workshop in Tokyo in November 2003 and the fi nal drafts were produced in mid-2004. Edited versions of
these are presented here as country chapters.

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The Economics of Electronic Commerce

by

Andrew B. Whinston, Dale O. Stahl, Soon-Yong Choi

While all other electronic commerce titles focus on "how to," The Economics of Electronic Commerce is the first to present current issues of electronic commerce from an economics perspective. Everyone involved in building electronic commerce applications and systems, as well as Internet consultants and economists, needs this foundational information for the future of the Internet.

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Beyond Economic Growth:
An Introduction to Sustainable Development

by

Tatyana P. Soubbotina

What is development? And what does it take to make development sustainable? How can we measure and compare levels of development for different countries? The author of Beyond Economic Growth challenges readers to find their own answers to these complex questions by analyzing and synthesizing information on a range of critical and interrelated development issues: population growth, economic growth, equity, poverty, hunger, education, health, industrialization, privatization, trade, foreign investment, international aid, climate change, the Millennium Development Goals, and more.

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Investment Risk Management

by

Yen Yee Chong

Risk has two sides: underestimating it harms the investor, while overestimating it prevents the implementation of bold business projects. This book explains, from the point of view of the practitioner, the analysis of investment risk - a proper account of adequate risk management strategies - and offers an objective and readable account of the most common investment risk management procedures. It will not be highly mathematical, although mathematical formulae and technical graphs will be used where necessary, and will not rely on excessive technical jargon.

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SCHAUM’S Easy OUTLINES
BOOKKEEPING AND ACCOUNTING

by

Joel J. Lerner

What could be better than the bestselling Schaum's Outline series? For students looking for a quick nuts-and-bolts overview, it would have to be Schaum's Easy Outline series. Every book in this series is a pared-down, simplified, and tightly focused version of its predecessor. With an emphasis on clarity and brevity, each new title features a streamlined and updated format and the absolute essence of the subject, presented in a concise and readily understandable form. Graphic elements such as sidebars, reader-alert icons, and boxed highlights stress selected points from the text, illuminate keys to learning, and give students quick pointers to the essentials. Designed to appeal to underprepared students and readers turned off by dense text Cartoons, sidebars, icons, and other graphic pointers get the material across fast Concise text focuses on the essence of the subject Deliver expert help from teachers who are authorities in their fields Perfect for last-minute test preparation So small and light that they fit in a backpack!

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RISK MANAGEMENT
AND CAPITAL ADEQUACY

by

RETO R. GALLATI

Under the new Basle Guidelines, all financial institutions subject to local banking laws will soon be required to operate under dramatically different risk exposure rules. Risk Management and Capital Adequacy provides details on the key risk approaches under these new guidelines and is the first book to analyze if and how they can be integrated. From conceptual frameworks to analyses of models and approaches, it provides a solid reference source for the information that everyone in risk management will soon need to know.

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Investment Valuation

by

Aswath Damodaran

A thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded new edition of the bestselling guide Valuation is at the heart of any investment decision. But asset pricing is becoming increasingly complex in today's financial markets. Fortunately, the number-one guide to valuation among investors and students of the financial markets, is now available in a fully revised and updated second edition. Investment Valuation, Second Edition provides a comprehensive introduction to the full range of modern valuation models and shows how to choose the right one for virtually every conceivable asset valuation scenario, including real options, start-up firms, unconventional assets, private equity, and real estate. This revised edition includes ten new chapters along with new case study examples, and thorough coverage of new valuation tools designed for markets that pose uniquely complex problems, including dot-coms, financial service firms, and telecommunication companies. Thanks to increased interactive tie-ins with online databases, spreadsheets, and other supporting tools, this Second Edition gives readers access to numerous real-time valuation exercises. Aswath Damodaran, PhD (New York, NY), is Associate Professor of Finance at New York University's Stern School of Business. He is the author of Applied Corporate Finance (Wiley: 0-471-33042-6)

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Modern Banking

by

Shelagh Heffernan

Book Description: Modern Banking focuses on the theory and practice of banking, and its prospects in the new millennium. The book is written for courses in banking and finance at Masters/MBA level, or undergraduate degrees specialising in this area. Bank practitioners wishing to deepen and broaden their understanding of banking issues may also be attracted to this book. While they often have exceptional and detailed knowledge of the areas they have worked in, busy bankers may be all too unaware of the key broader issues. Consider the fundamental questions: What is unique about a bank? and What differentiates it from other financial institutions? Answering these questions begins to show how banks should evolve and adapt - or fail. If bankers know the underlying reasons for why profitable banks exist, it will help them to devise strategies for sustained growth. Modern Banking concludes with a set of case studies that give practical insight into the key issues covered in the book: The core banking functions Different types of banks and diversification of bank activities Risk management: issues and techniques Global regulation: Basel 1 and Basel 2. Bank regulation in the UK, US, EU, and Japan Banking in emerging markets Bank failure and financial crises Competitive issues, from cost efficiency to mergers and acquisitions Case Studies including: Goldman Sachs, Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui, Bancomer.

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Stochastic Modeling in Economics and Finance

by

Dupacova, J., Hurt, J., Stepan, J.

Unlike other books that focus only on selected specific subjects this book provides both a broad and rich cross-section of contemporary approaches to stochastic modeling in finance and economics; it is decision making oriented. The material ranges from common tools to solutions of sophisticated system problems and applications.In Part I, the fundamentals of financial thinking and elementary mathematical methods of finance are presented. The method of presentation is simple enough to bridge the elements of financial arithmetic and complex models of financial math developed in the later parts. It covers characteristics of cash flows, yield curves, and valuation of securities.Part II is devoted to the allocation of funds and risk management: classics (Markowitz theory of portfolio), capital asset pricing model, arbitrage pricing theory, asset & liability management, value at risk. The method explanation takes into account the computational aspects.Part III explains modeling aspects of multistage stochastic programming on a relatively accessible level. It includes a survey of existing software, links to parametric, multiobjective and dynamic programming, and to probability and statistics. It focuses on scenario-based problems with the problems of scenario generation and output analysis discussed in detail and illustrated within a case study. Selected examples of successful applications in finance, production planning and management of technological processes and electricity generation are presented. Throughout, the emphasis is on the appropriate use of the techniques, rather than on the underlying mathematical proofs and theories.In Part IV, the sections devoted to stochastic calculus cover also more advanced topics such as DDS Theorem or extremal martingale measures, which make it possible to treat more delicate models in Mathematical Finance (complete markets, optimal control, etc.)Audience: Students and researchers in probability and statistics, econometrics, operations research and various fields of finance, economics, engineering, and insurance.

Written for:
Students and researchers in probability and statistics, econometrics, operations research and various fields of finance, economics, engineering, and insurance.

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Stochastic Methods in Economics and Finance

by

A.G. Malliaris & W.A. Brock

Theory and application of a variety of mathematical techniques in economics are presented in this volume. Topics discussed include: martingale methods, stochastic processes, optimal stopping, the modeling of uncertainty using a Wiener process, Itô's Lemma as a tool of stochastic calculus, and basic facts about stochastic differential equations. The notion of stochastic ability and the methods of stochastic control are discussed, and their use in economic theory and finance is illustrated with numerous applications. The applications covered include: futures, pricing, job search, stochastic capital theory, stochastic economic growth, the rational expectations hypothesis, a stochastic macroeconomic model, competitive firm under price uncertainty, the Black-Scholes option pricing theory, optimum consumption and portfolio rules, demand for index bonds, term structure of interest rates, the market risk adjustment in project valuation, demand for cash balances and an asset pricing model.

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Schweser Book

For CFA Level 1, December 2006 Exam

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Schweser Book 1

Schweser Book 2

Schweser Book 3

Schweser Book 4

Schweser Book 5

Schweser Book 6

Risk and Financial Management

Mathematical and Computational Methods

by

Charles Tapiero

Financial risk management has become a popular practice amongst financial institutions to protect against the adverse effects of uncertainty caused by fluctuations in interest rates, exchange rates, commodity prices, and equity prices. New financial instruments and mathematical techniques are continuously developed and introduced in financial practice. These techniques are being used by an increasing number of firms, traders and financial risk managers across various industries. Risk and Financial Management: Mathematical and Computational Methods confronts the many issues and controversies, and explains the fundamental concepts that underpin financial risk management. - Provides a comprehensive introduction to the core topics of risk and financial management. - Adopts a pragmatic approach, focused on computational, rather than just theoretical, methods. - Bridges the gap between theory and practice in financial risk management. - Includes coverage of utility theory, probability, options and derivatives, stochastic volatility and value at risk. - Suitable for students of risk, mathematical finance, and financial risk management, and finance practitioners. - Includes extensive reference lists, applications and suggestions for further reading. Risk and Financial Management: Mathematical and Computational Methods is ideally suited to both students of mathematical finance with little background in economics and finance, and students of financial risk management, as well as finance practitioners requiring a clearer understanding of the mathematical and computational methods they use every day. It combines the required level of rigor, to support the theoretical developments, with a practical flavour through many examples and applications.

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Value at Risk:

The New Benchmark for Managing Financial Risk

by

Philippe Jorion

This book was rushed into print following the release of JPMorgan's landmark RiskMetrics description of VaR. Like RiskMetrics, its focus is on explaining VaR to corporate end users. For a while, it was the only book available on VaR, so it became well known. A second edition added material on topics other than VaR, but did not update the treatment of VaR. By today's standards, the book is dated.
Now there are a number of excellent books available on VaR, and these cater to various audiences. Depending upon what you are looking for, they offer a more accessible, more sophisticated, or more up-to-date treatment of VaR.
For an elementary introduction, you can't beat Butler. Downplaying theory, he shows you practical spreadsheet examples you can use to implement basic VaR models. He explains related topics, such as probability distributions, delta and gamma, and the Monte Carlo method, so the book is self-contained.
Marrison's "Measuring Market Risk" describes VaR in the context of bank risk management. More sophisticated than Butler, this is a practical, "real world" book for people starting in bank risk management. Marrison ties VaR together with topics such as capital allocation, credit risk modeling and asset-liability management.
Holton is written for practicing risk mangers or researchers. Before it even publishes, it has made a splash on trading floors where dog-eared preprint copies have become a coveted item. Holton explains in detail things like delta-gamma VaR and variance reduction for Monte Carlo VaR -- topics other books only mention. Also, Holton is the only book that offers exercises.
For use of VaR in investment management, see Pearson's "Risk Budgeting." It introduces VaR and then explains how it can be used to allocate assets between investment categories or among managers -- this is known as risk budgeting. The focus of the book is a technique from calculus that allows you to decompose risks so that the parts sum to the whole. There isn't much else written on this topic, and Pearson offers the best treatment that I know of.
Finally, there is Dowd's "Beyond Value-at-Risk." This provides an excellent survey of the literature on VaR. It also covers related risk management topics, including credit risk management and risk-adjusted performance measurement. (A reader)

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Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management

by

Frank K. Reilly and Keith C. Brown

The purpose of this book is to help you learn how to manage your money to derive the maximum benefit from what you earn. Mixing investment instruments and capital markets with the theoretical detail on evaluating investments and opportunities to satisfy risk-return objectives along with how investment practice and theory is influenced by globalization leaves readers with the mindset on investments to serve them well. The material is intended to be rigorous and empirical yet not overly quantitative. We continue with unparalleled international coverage, newly rewritten and reorganized derivatives material to be more intuitive and clearer, three additional chapters on derivatives pricing for those who want more detail, rewritten material on multifactor models of risk and return, and new CFA problems for more practice on computations concerning investment decisions. To manage money and investments, one needs to learn about investment alternatives and develop a way of analyzing and thinking about investments that will be of benefit and allow a foundation as new tools and investment opportunities become available. Reilly/Brown provide the best foundation, used extensively by professionals, organizations, and schools across the country. A great source for those with both a theoretical and practical need for investment expertise.

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Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis

by

Dennis W. McLeavey

Jerald E.Pinto

David E. Runkle

Richard Armand Defusco

Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis provides a blend of theory and practice to teach statistics within the context of finance and investments. No prior financial knowledge is assumed. Several features of this book are tailored specifically to help the reader. First, learning outcome statements (LOS) specify the objective of each chapter. Second, examples and problem practice are emphasized so that the reader can gain confidence in meeting the LOS objectives. Finally, examples and problems seek to present situations faced by investment practitioners and reflect the global investment community.

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BUILDING FINANCIAL MODELS
A Guide to Creating and Interpreting
Financial Statements

by
JOHN S. TJIA

This book will teach you how to bring together what you know of finance, accounting, and the spreadsheet to give you a new skill—building financial models. The ability to create and understand models is one of the most valued skills in business and finance today. It’s an expertise that will stand you in good stead in any arena—Wall Street or Main Street—where numbers are important. Whether you are a veteran, just starting out on your career, or still in school, having this expertise can give you a competitive advantage in what you want to do. By the time you have completed the steps laid out in this book, you will have created a working, dynamic spreadsheet financial model with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) that you can use to make projections for industrial/manufacturing companies. (Banks and insurance companies have different flows in their businesses and are not covered in this book.)

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Financial Management and Analysis
Second Edition

by

FRANK J. FABOZZI
PAMELA P. PETERSON

Financial Management and Analysis is an introduction to the concepts, tools, and applications of finance. The purpose of this textbook is to communicate the fundamentals of financial management and financial analysis. This textbook is written in a way that will enable students who are just beginning their study of finance to understand financial decision-making and its role in the decision-making process of the entire firm. Throughout the textbook, you’ll see how we view finance. We see financial decision-making as an integral part of the firm’s decision-making, not as a separate function. Financial decision-making involves coordination among personnel specializing in accounting, marketing, and production aspects of the firm.

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Raising Capital

Get the Money You Need to Grow Your Business

by

ANDREW J. SHERMAN

AMERICA—INDEED, THE ENTIRE GLOBAL ECONOMY— is in the midst of the biggest boom in entrepreneurship the world has ever seen. Thousands of new businesses are being formed every month, not just in high-tech fields, but in traditional sectors where someone has a new idea for doing things differently. And existing businesses are being sold, combined and restructured at a dizzying rate. Closely held companies that once would have remained in private hands for decades are now being sold much earlier in their growth cycle. All of this ferment has been accompanied by explosive growth in both the supply of capital and the variety of funding choices. The traditional sources of capital—especially bank loans—have been supplemented (and in many sectors, supplanted) by such new sources as “angels,” venture capitalists, private placements, institutional investors and public equity markets. With the newspapers and airwaves filled each day with stories of dazzling successes by start-ups, many entrepreneurs may be getting the mistaken impression that this is all very easy. It’s not. Behind every “overnight success” are many thousands of hours of hard work, self-education and trial-&-error bungling. And for every success, there are countless businesses that failed because one or more of the essential ingredients were missing. This fine new book, Raising Capital, is designed to minimize those risks and increase the odds of making it.

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FINANCIAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

by

Nils Rasmussen
Paul S. Goldy
Per O. Solli

How do you measure your company’s financial business intelligence (BI)? Most people do not know how to answer this question because the organizations they work for are just starting to get into this field. Financial business intelligence is the process of getting useful information out of financial data, and this book looks at both processes, trends, and tools to help you increase your company’s business intelligence. The goal with improving your organization’s business intelligence processes and tools should be to support financial leadership. Before you dig into the details of BI, we therefore hope that this book can be an important building block for you to help support your corporation’s growth and success.

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Time Series Analysis

by

James Douglas Hamilton

This is a large text in time series analysis that is designed for graduate students as the author acknowledges in his preface. It deals primarily with the theory and the tools rather than providing practical applications. It does not require a Ph.D. but does require a fair amount of mathematical sophistication that comes from advanced courses in probability and statistics. There are many good books at this level. This one has some unique features. It covers the traditional ARIMA models that can be found in most texts and uses the operator notation that Box and Jenkins introduced. It adds vector autoregressions which is fairly recent material. Spectral analysis (the frequency domain approach)is also covered and asymptotic theory is presented. Linear systems (more common to econometric time series than in the standard statistical books) is covered. Topics not commonly covered in competitor texts include nonstationary cases (both univariate and multivariate)with unit roots to the characteristic equation, Bayesian approaches, heteroscedastic models including the ARCH models and the topic of cointegration originally developed by Clive Granger. The book is loaded with references to the literature and is slanted towards methods useful in econometrics. Other good books at this level include Brockwell and Davis (1987), Fuller (1976), Anderson (1971), Harvey (1981) and Shumway and Stoffer (2000). Good texts solely in the frequency domain include Bloomfeld (1976), Priestley (1981), Koopmans (1974) and Brillinger (1981). Box, Jenkins and Reinsel (1994) provides practical applications using the Box-Jenkins time domain approach. (Statman13)

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Applied Quantitative Finance

by

Wolfgang Hardle
Torsten Kleinow
Gerhard Stahl

This book is designed for students and researchers who want to develop professional skill in modern quantitative applications in nance. The Center for Applied Statistics and Economics (CASE) course at Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin that forms the basis for this book is oered to interested students who have had some experience with probability, statistics and software applications but have not had advanced courses in mathematical nance. Although the course assumes only a modest background it moves quickly between different fields of applications and in the end, the reader can expect to have theoretical and computational tools that are deep enough and rich enough to be relied on throughout future professional careers.

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Analysis of Financial Time Series

Financial Econometrics

by

RUEY S. TSAY

This book grew out of an MBA course in analysis of financial time series that I have been teaching at the University of Chicago since 1999. It also covers materials of Ph.D. courses in time series analysis that I taught over the years. It is an introductory book intended to provide a comprehensive and systematic account of financial econometric models and their application to modeling and prediction of financial time series data. The goals are to learn basic characteristics of financial data, understand the application of financial econometric models, and gain experience in analyzing financial time series. The book will be useful as a text of time series analysis for MBA students with finance concentration or senior undergraduate and graduate students in business, economics, mathematics, and statistics who are interested in financial econometrics. The book is also a useful reference for researchers and practitioners in business, finance, and insurance facing Value at Risk calculation, volatility modeling, and analysis of
serially correlated data.

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Financial Markets & Corporate Strategy

by

Mark Grinblatt and Sheridan Titman

“Integrating capital structure and corporate financial decisions with corporate strategy has been a central area of research in finance and economics for more than a decade and it has clearly changed the way we think about these matters. What is remarkable about this book is that it can take this relatively new material and so comfortably and seamlessly knit it together with more traditional approaches to give the reader such a clear understanding of corporate finance. Anyone who wants to probe more deeply into financial decision making and understand its relation to corporate strategy should read this text. Nor is this a book that will gather dust
when the course is over; it will become part of every reader’s tool kit and they will turn back to it often. I know that I will.” (Stephen A. Ross, Yale University)

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FUNDAMENTALS OF CORPORATE FINANCE

Third Edition

by

Ross, Westerfield, Jordan

This book is an introduction to corporate finance. We will discuss the various responsibilities of the corporation’s financial managers and show you how to tackle many of the problems that these managers are expected to solve. We begin with a discussion of the corporation, the financial decisions it needs to make, and why they are important. To survive and prosper, a company must satisfy its customers. It must also produce and sell products and services at a profit. In order to produce, it needs many assets—plant, equipment, offices, computers, technology, and so on. The company has to decide (1) which assets to buy and (2) how to pay for them. The financial manager plays a key role in both these decisions. The investment decision, that is, the decision to invest in assets like plant, equipment, and know-how, is in large part a responsibility of the financial manager. So is the financing decision, the choice of how to pay for such investments.

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FINANCIAL ANALYSIS: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
A Guide for Managers

by

ERICH A. HELFERT, D.B.A.

This book is a bona fide treasury for executives, managers, and entrepreneurs who need to understand financial management. I have used and recommended this great work in both corporate and university programs for more than ten years. The author possesses unique abilities to make clear the arcane that frequently enshrouds topics of financial management.

This book is also a candidate for every consultant-to-management’s bookshelf. The underlying agenda is financial management as it pertains to effective resource allocation decisions. Framed in a dynamic model of the Business System, the beauty of Helfert’s presentation lies in its treatment of subsystems that differentiate between investment, operations and financing decisions, but which are also integrated into the overall managerial fabric.

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